EXPLOSION IN NORTH KOREA
There was a MASSIVE explosion in North Korea a short while ago. The “mushroom-shaped” smoke cloud was estimated at between 2 and 2 1/2 miles wide (3.5 to 4 km). There are no indications that it was a nuclear test.
It is suspected that it was an oil tanker train hitting power lines that triggered it. That doesn’t really make sense unless something extra-ordinary occurred such as a derailed train or a downed power line. The fact that the explosion occurred on September 9, the Anniversary of North Korea’s founding is causing some concern as North Koreans are know to make tests, demonstrations, and unveilings of new weapons and other progress indicators on important anniversaries. Whatever this is, it is certainly not good.
1st UPDATE: It appears that Chinese and South Korean authorities are searching for witnesses to the explosion. With a smoke cloud more than 2 miles across, I would suspect that maybe one or two people saw something unusual. This happened days ago. I have an incredibly hard time believing that we (the US) have not scoured every inch of the blast site with satellites and already know what happened. Apparently, the Chinese know something too, but are not saying anything yet.
2nd UPDATE: South Korean government implies that the US is witholding information:
The United States provided no information to South Korea on the blasts in Kimhyeongjik county, Yanggang province, [government officials] said. Intelligence aides said that U.S. data ??which would be critical to decipher what happened on Wednesday and Thursday ??were not handed over to the U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command. Several South Korean intelligence officials said that normally the United States would have delivered time-sequenced analyses of the explosion North Korea, but that such information was not made available.
Yet, in the same article, goverment officials indicate that US is in deed cooperating:
The official said that the South Korea government has officially requested cooperation from the United States, although it remains unclear when the request was made. The official also said that the United States is cooperating, but no one would say definitively as to what extent the United States and South Korea were sharing information.
There seems to be confusion even surrounding whether or not governments are cooperating with each other. On a side note, it is interesting from a slanted journalism point of view that the US is singled out for non-cooperation, yet there is no information in the story about the extent of Chinese cooperation or non-cooperation.
(Thanks to the Kimchi GI for the tip on this update)
3rd UPDATE: Marmot links to a BBC article reporting that the North Korean government explained the explosion as the “deliberate demolition of a mountain as part of a hydro-electric project.”
4th UPDATE: It seems that no one is seriously buying the story of blowing up a mountain for a hydro-electric plant. Some of the reasons people are skeptical is that there does not appear to be any rivers in the area, no place suitable for a dam, and such clouds are not indicative of large-scale rock blasting. As part of its bizarre explanations of the blast, North Korean official said that they did not tell anyone sooner because “All foreign journalists are liars.”
Developing…